"We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing." - Abraham Lincoln

Friday, April 18, 2008

On Polygamy

I'm personally opposed to polygamy, but...

C'mon, this stuff in Texas is fascinating. So, first a girl calls up and says she is being abused and possibly raped. The feds have been watching the FLDS for a while and use this complaint as their justification for raiding the compound. Something like 460 children are taken into the custody of the State of Texas.

One of the girls told authorities that she was warned that if she left the compound she would be forced to wear skimpy clothing and makeup, and that she would be forced to have sex with lots of men. What complete fantasy! Most teenage girls are wearing next to nothing and are sleeping with multiple partners by 15, but are they forced? C'mon, really?

Polygamy laws are very nearly a relic. I give them two to three years.

If I'm an American male I can have multiple partners and have children with as many of them as I like. The cultural stigma on this behavior, especially in urban areas, is virtually non-existent. But if I marry these girls I am suddenly breaking the law? Buh-bye anti-polygamy laws.

I would like to reiterate that I am personally opposed to polygamy. The argument that Abraham did it doesn't hold water. We don't live in 3000 B.C. Our cultural assesment of marriage has moved ahead since then in large part because of Christian ethical systems and the emergence of the person as the building block of society. But our misuse of freedom has given rise to perverted understanding of personhood and of freedom itself.

I have a feeling that pretty soon, you'll be able to marry pretty much whatever you want.

Hey, anonymous, I'm not sure what you mean. There are many more instances where good parenting is punished and not rewarded. It certainly seems to me that both the law and the culture, which should nurture families, are hostile to them.